Located in Clusone, set in front of the Basilica of Santa Maria Assunta, the Oratorio dei Disciplini is a 14th-century medieval building commissioned by the confraternity of the Disciplini of Bergamo as the headquarters of their order.
The structure looks like a simple structure but possesses many valuable frescoes: the most important fresco is by the Clusonese painter Giacomo Borlone de Buschis, divided into 5 parts, which represents a synthesis, unique in Europe, of the themes of death at the end of the Middle Ages.
We can find the Triumph of Death and the Dance Macabre in the outer part and the Life of Jesus with the Crucifixion in the outer part.
In the Triumph of Death, it is represented iconographically as the ruler to whom all men submit Death of all men, while in the lower band of the fresco each living character with a frightened and despairing expression meets his or her skeleton, and the whole is represented with a parade of couples in which the skeleton (the dead), is the double of the living: this is the famous “Dance Macabre” a widespread theme in northern Europe.
The Middle Ages was a time of plagues and insecurity but also of art and taste for beauty!
A time when people were communicated to the people through images, which were much more direct than writings and above all understandable even by the very many illiterate people present at the time.
For these reasons, the Disciplines of Clusone decided to commission the Dance Macabre, a magnificent cycle of frescoes .
They were a confraternity that engaged in charitable works toward the neediest strata of society and followed a life rigidly regulated by prayer and penance, habitually practicing self-flagellation.
The brethren were so concerned about the salvation of their own souls and the salvation of the souls of others that they decided to portray precisely Death triumphant, depicted as a skeleton, impassive in the face of the wealth and power of kings, knights and popes: all are subject to her, all are driven to live righteous lives in anticipation of eternal salvation.
It can be visited on Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., but please check the opening hours on the websites before visiting.